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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 602
 
| Ive never had the opportunity to bail. I had one incident where my mare wasn't use to an alley way and we were headed home. She made the executive decision to circle out right before the alley way. I ended up superman-ing it into livestock panels. That was a trip to the hospital. The other incident I had, my horse decided to run up the wall on the first barrel. When he did it, he pivoted and it threw me off the side of the saddle. I was dragged about 20 ft down a cement wall. He came to a stop. I walked away from that one.
*What about stopping straight at the end of the run or circling out? In our area, 99% of the arenas do not have an alley. Ive seen so many accidents and 1 death from stopping straight into the fence. I like to circle out to give the horse a chance to slow down and not to stress out tendons.
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
  
| I had one horse run away with me in an arena, never thought about bailing. I got that sucker stopped and he was gone the next week. Mine all stop when I say whoa. That has kept me from getting hurt more than once. "Whoa" is the favorite word for my whole crew. |
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 Three in a Bikini
Posts: 2035
| The only time I have ever bailed I did not get to make the choice.
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 The Worst Seller Ever
Posts: 4138
Location: Oklahoma | I have bailed once. My horses all are trained to stop or slow up when you get on the side of them. I broke a headstall and finished my run, but stepped to the side in the alley. I lost my footing, but he stopped before we had a major issue.
Another safety measure I try to instill in my horses when we run barrels is to immediately slow when you hit the alley. I never push my horses through the alley on the way out. I am lucky enough to have horses that stop and stop straight when they are asked. It might not be a pretty slide, but it is a stop.
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Too busy outside!
Posts: 5417
| I think the answer to this would depend on the experience of the rider and the rider knowing what they can handle and what they can't. I've ridden through some and I've bailed off some- the ones I bail from are those who I know are out of their minds and have no sense of saving themselves let alone me. The ones I stay on are the ones who are just being ornery and trying to see what they can get away with this time. I've had a barrel horse slip on the pattern and throw the reins over his head- but since the gate was closed, I just let him run around the pen until he decided to stop- but if the gate was open and he was headed out to God knows where I would bail as fast as I could- |
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| One thing missing in todays training is a simple safety factor for brand new colts
being started or for old saddle horses ..
All horses used to be trained to come to a screaming halt when they felt the rider
shift their weight as if to dismount or lost their seat ... this was instilled in the
first days of training and enforced as years went by ...
I have stood up in one stirrup with leg lifted over cantle and been slung so far
it took me an hour to walk back ... lol ..
The only thing I never trained under western saddle not to stop running ...
were a few hazing horses ... lol
Just play like you are going to train a calf roping horse and do it to both sides
of the horse ... you will never regret having taught emergency stop to your horses.
 (GITTIN N DA GROUND.jpg)
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 GITTIN N DA GROUND.jpg (64KB - 178 downloads)
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 421
Location: Texas!! | A few years ago, I was running my mare and she stumbled at the 1st barrel and my reins went over her head. Luckily she ran up the fence toward the 3rd barrel instead of the alley. So I had time to react. She is a tall mare, but has a short neck. So I was able to reach her headstall by her cheek and pull her head around and she stopped and I got off. Had she ran towards the alley, I don't know what I would of done.... |
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